Lunar: Black Star Rising
By Thomas Knapp
Chapter Three
"Still nothing from Lemina?" Jean asked frustratingly, "And NO ONE knows where she went?"
The messenger from Vane shuffled nervously. He had heard all sorts of stories as to Jean's martial skill, skill he was in no hurry to test. "As far as… we can tell… she left last night, informing no one… as to where she was going… or when she would return…"
"Fine… thanks for nothing." Jean snapped, and waved the messenger away. As she prepared to scream, Taras quipped, "That was awfully unfair, getting upset at that poor man just for telling you news you didn't want to hear."
"I'm more upset at Lemina… this isn't at all like her." Jean huffed, "She had become so responsible the last couple years." Then Jean grew worried, "I just hope nothing's wrong…"
At that moment, there was movement in the brush, causing Taras to whirl quickly, his 'handgun', as Jean remembered it being called, pointed in the direction of the disturbance.
"WHOA! Easy there, killer!" A playful voice shouted, and the most individual looking man stepped out, his hands over his head, a head topped with the most intriguing brown streak through white.
"Nall!" Jean welcomed, giving the white dragon's human guise a long hug, causing Nall to actually blush. Despite the friendly exchange between Jean and the new arrival, Taras did not seem totally convinced, only lowering his weapon to a stand-by position.
Jean turned to the pale-skinned man, and hissed, "Geez, Taras, put that damn thing away before you hurt somebody!"
Finally, Taras acquiesced, and placed the small gun back into its shoulder holster. Jean sighed, and led Nall to the tall and still quite large man, even without the 'spacesuit'. "This is Taras."
"Hiya, how ya doing? I'm Nall, leader of the Dragon Kids." Nall said amiably.
Taras glared, and then said to Jean, "He's the dragon you spoke of?"
"Yes… this is just his human guise. I am afraid his real form wouldn't fit in this small clearing." Jean replied with a chuckle. "Anyway, Nall, I was wondering if you had heard anything about Lemina."
"Why, is something wrong?"
"She disappeared from the Magic Guild last night, and no one knows where she went. I was wondering if you might have any idea where…"
Nall gave Jean a disparaging look, and said defensively, "How would I know where Lemina went? I know I live close to her, but that doesn't mean that I know what she's up to at all hours. Although…" Nall's voice drifted off thoughtfully.
"Although what?" Jean asked, getting somewhat impatient.
"Now that I think about it, Ruby ran off yesterday afternoon, turns out Gwyn had called her to do something for him, although she wasn't very elaborate as to what." Nall shrugged, and added, "Maybe it had something to do with Lemina, maybe not, but it does seem like a strange coincidence."
"I'm tempted just to head to Vane right now, and wait for her to come back." Jean mused, to which Nall raised an eyebrow.
"I'm always willing to have you ride me, Jeanie-girl." His mouth turned in a suggestive smile, waiting for the innuendo to sink in.
When it did, Jean had to quickly make a decision between laughing, and planting a right hook onto Nall's nose. Finally, she did both, playfully swatting Nall on the side of his head. With a humored grin, she decided two could play those games, "Well, as long as you don't mind a three-some, we'll take you up on that offer."
Gwyn's Tower...
"Well, looks like our pale friend is gonna be none the worse for wear." Ronfar replied, "I'm sort of curious how he got like that in the first place, though."
"It's awfully hard to explain. We found him inside some strange object where that huge fireball this morning came down." Lemina tried to explain, but it even sounded weird to her, and she was THERE.
"No kidding…" Ronfar said, surprisingly unfazed by the news. Perhaps all his adventures had desensitized him to unusual and bizarre happenings. "Anyway… unless you have any other use for me, maybe Ruby could ship me back to Larpa. I really didn't give Mauri much warning since Ruby sounded so urgent…"
At that moment, a soft moan came from the next room, and the three rushed in to see their pale stranger pulling a gloved hand to his head.
Ronfar was the first one to him, and pushed the visitor down as he tried to sit up. "Easy there, kiddo. You've had quite a ride."
"How did I get here?" The man gasped, his eyes finally opening to scan his surroundings. "I guess my plan worked…"
"Your plan?" Gwyn asked.
"To bring the shuttle down as close to parallel to the ground so as to reduce the force of impact." He said, trying to sit up again, and pushing away Ronfar in the process. He cringed as he did so, and added, "Although it appears I wasn't as successful as I would have liked."
Ronfar turned to Lemina and Gwyn, and asked, "Do either of you know just exactly what he said?"
"Not… exactly." Lemina admitted, "I mean… SOME of it made sense."
"I'm sorry." The pale man admitted, "I tend to soar above people when I talk, making things sound more complicated than they need to be."
"All right… OUR turn to ask some questions. First of all, let's start with who the hell you are." Lemina ordered.
The visitor looked right up at Lemina, and replied, "My name is Toras, I am a doctorate of science and history on Centris, on the small moon my people call the Black Moon."
Gwyn gasped in sheer delight, "I KNEW IT! You must mean the Black Star!"
Ronfar appeared puzzled, and queried, "Whoa… okay… the Black Moon or Black Star? What is it, and WHICH is it?"
Lemina stepped in. "Gwyn had discovered some stellar object blocking the view of several stars off the horizon of the Blue Star. He figured it was another moon orbiting the Blue Star."
Toras's eyebrows raised in intrigue. "Most clever. This displays a fascinating logical process that I'm surprised your kind possess at this point."
Lemina turned in Toras direction questioningly, and he quickly explained, "Over a century ago, my people finally had telescopic devices powerful enough to examine what we call the Silver Moon closely. What we discovered was evidence of ANOTHER civilization separate from ours."
"So, why are you here?" Lemina asked, "Were you supposed to observe us?"
Toras seemed to think for a moment, then finally replied, "Yes… in a way. We were more supposed to examine this moon as a whole. You see… The Silver Moon is only visible to us every 100 years or so, and then, only for a few months. It is only during that limited window that the orbits of both moons clear the planet in a way that one is visible to the other. The rest of that time, the Blue Star is in between the two."
"Your people waited 100 YEARS to come here? Why?"
"Well, there are multiple reasons. First of all, and most importantly, we ourselves didn't have the technology to survive in the harsh realm of outer space long enough to complete such a journey until about 25 years ago. Second, we had to wait until the Blue Star was blocking the deadly solar radiation belts that usually bombard this planetary cluster."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Ronfar shouted, "Outer space, solar radiation belts, planetary clusters? Can someone tell me what hell you are saying?"
"Sorry, there I go again." Toras apologized, "I forgot that you wouldn't know many of the terms I have come to learn. Let me put it this way; we would not have survived a trip here until recently."
"Anyway, so you were to examine Lunar… any real purpose for that?" Lemina interrogated.
"You call this moon, Lunar, huh? Very well… Lunar, it is then. Well, to answer your question, Madame…"
It took Lemina a moment to realize Toras was talking to her. "Lemina." She answered hastily.
"Madame Lemina," Toras continued, "you could say scientific curiosity was the major reason. I'm sure all of you have wondered just what is out there…"
Gwyn nodded readily, and even Lemina had to admit that she had been caught star gazing every once in a while.
But Toras quickly amended, "Although, I can imagine some of my people would like to see this moon's potential for colonization."
"Colonization…" Lemina repeated, "The word SOUNDS like something I know…"
"And probably has a similar meaning, if you are thinking what I am." Toras interceeded, "To put it bluntly, the Black Moon is NOT the most suitable place for human existence. First of all, the soil of the Black Moon is over 80% Carbon, which is why it appears almost totally black, and has very little weather activity."
He took a deep breath, then said, "Because of the lack of weather, there is no active water cycle, and my people are forced to spend most of our lives underground, below the carbon sediment, and where all the water is."
"Explains why you are so pale." Lemina nodded, "You don't get very much sun."
"Exactly." Toras agreed with a nod, "Needless to say, when we saw that there was life on Lunar, no doubt someone figured that it might be a good place to move to. I would not be at all surprised if that is a secondary goal of this expedition."
"You mean, we might see an invasion force from this Black Moon?" Ronfar asked.
"INVASION would be a harsh word, and nothing will be coming here if they think I'm dead. Just so you know, what happened with my arrival here was NOT the standard operating procedure. Or should I say, it wasn't supposed to happen like that."
Gwyn and Lemina answered together, "We kinda figured."
Toras stood up slowly, gingerly working out the kinks in his body. "Anyway… how long was I unconscious?"
Gywn looked out at the position of the sun, and replied, "I'd wager a few hours…"
"Pardon? That's not possible. I could not have escaped the crash of my shuttle this well."
"Oh, you didn't." Lemina replied, "Gwyn and Ronfar here had to use a lot of healing magic to get you patched together again."
Toras appeared disconcerted for a mere second, then asked, "Healing… magic?"
"That's right." Ronfar smirked, "It took quite a bit of Althena's blessed Litanies to fix you up."
"Althena…" Toras muttered under his breath, then spoke up. "Anyway… I have one final question of you. Did anyone here happen to see any other objects in the sky last night?"
"No… just your… shuttle." Gwyn commented.
Toras nodded. It was entirely possible that the escape pod was jettisoned quite a distance from the shuttle. Just the right amount of atmospheric drag could have possibly sent it halfway across Lunar. "All right… is there any way I can find out if someone else did?"
"Certainly." Lemina replied, "Ruby, can you fly us back to Vane?"
Ruby retaliated indignantly, "HEY! I'm a dragon, not some sort of cargo ship!"
"Ruby, JUST DO IT!" Lemina shouted.
"All right… don't blow up on me!" Ruby answered, "I'll be waiting outside." With that, she disappeared out the window.
Toras was sure that he was missing a critical piece of information, but he felt it wise to point out anyway, "Umm… judging from that small creature's size, I'm not certain that it can fly us anywhere."
Ronfar chuckled, "I know Ruby don't seem like much, but she can become a lot bigger, more than enough to carry the three of you to Vane."
"The two of them, you mean." Gwyn replied, "I'm gonna stick around here, and try to secure that mess Toras made before some wild critters muck it up more. I take it you are heading back to Larpa?"
"Yeah, at least long enough to tell Mauri what's going on."
"Take my ship, then. It'll make your trip quicker."
"Thanks, old man." Ronfar nodded gratefully, and slipped out the door.
Soon after, Lemina motioned for Toras to follow her outside, "Let's not keep Ruby waiting."
Toras followed, his mind racing with all he had learned. Both the people of Lunar and the Black Moon referred to the planet as the Blue Star. They had languages that were almost identical, their use of magic, and the name Althena.
"Could there actually be something to the old religion?" Toras thought as he approached a large, red beast that he could only assume was Ruby. Indeed, the small creature he had initially mistaken for some sort of flying feline was something quite different indeed.
"Absolutely fascinating…" Toras muttered as Ruby helped him onto her back, and then pushed upward for the flight to Vane.
